Because of their advantageous properties such as high compressive strength and flexural strength, low specific weight, high corrosion resistance, high use temperatures, low thermal expansion and very good electrical insulation properties, ceramic moldings are being used to an ever increasing extent in diverse products, inter alia also for the production of components for the electrical industry. Use as a component makes it necessary for the ceramic to be firmly bonded to materials of a different type, in particular to metals.
To this end the ceramic surface is usually first metallized, for instance by currentless nickel plating. This nickel layer can then be further thickened by electroplating with nickel. Further metal layers can then be deposited on said layer in order to ensure good soldering with metal components. It is obvious that the adhesion of the composite constituents is of decisive importance in this ceramic and metal composite.
In addition to currentless metal deposition, in principle other chemical or electroplating processes, chemical vapor deposition, physical vapor deposition, sputtering, plasma spraying and all other techniques known to those skilled in the art are also suitable as coating techniques.